You might have to force yourself to work all the way through "America 101," a recent article by Bill Moyers. Those who care about America's future will make it all the way through, despite the bad news. The article is yet another well-researched and well-expressed piece of writing by Moyers,…
What a terrific resource! GodChecker.com. Who would you like to look up? The Aztec god HUITZILOPOCHTLI? The Mesopotamian gods TIAMAT or ENKI? The South American god PERIBORIWA? They are all here, complete with sassy yet informative descriptions. Here's an example of the writing concerning the South American god "Sinaa": SINAA:…
I’ve gotten used to the world of email and blogging. Back in October I read a (typically good) short article in Smithsonian Magazine about Regional American Dialects entitled “Say What?” by Ulrich Boser.
The last line quotes University of Pennsylvania linguist Bill Labov commenting on linguistic drift:
“But it’s not really like biological evolution. No linguist believes that language gets better as it changes.”
To which my mind immediately snapped: “Say What?!?” I typed a quick reply commenting on the misapplied value judgment attributed to the course of biological evolution. I got an email this week advising me that the editors will print my “letter” in the December 2006 issue of Smithsonian Magazine.
Oops.
Hey, I know the headline isn't grammatical! It was to get your attention regarding this post by Bob Cesca on Huffpo. Cesca makes the point that "Bring em on!" cost who-knows-how-many deaths, while Kerry's recent gaffe was but a gaffe. It must be surreal to be criticized by a speaker…
This annoys me. In 1971, Dick Van Dyke starred in a movie called Cold Turkey. It was a comedy about a dying town attempting to win a prize sponsored by a tobacco company that was betting against any town remaining "smoke free" for a certain length of time. Van Dyke…